Evelyn, 12th grade

The trip was very eye opening for me. When we were cleaning the storm drains on Thursday, day 4 of our trip, we learned that the city of New Orleans doesn’t maintain the storm drains like they should, and that can lead to dangerous flooding. There was garbage in the lesser-known streets and alleyways of the city, whereas the streets outside of the fancy, big retail stores were spotless. It was like the city cared more about cleaning the places most people saw, even if they weren’t the places that needed cleaning. It seemed unfair to me, that people in a small neighborhood should work so hard to keep their homes safe from flooding when the places being kept perfectly pristine aren’t even being lived in. That’s a crappy deal. But it reminded me of the speaker we had on day 3 of our trip, or day 2 of the Youth Gathering itself. Her name was Jaqueline Bussie, and she talked about being an “anyways person.” She said, “Life is going to throw garbage at us, but we push forward anyways.” Those words came back to me when I heard why our service project was so important. The city refused to take care of the storm drains, and left the streets of that neighborhood flooded, but we tried to help anyway. We didn’t fix the problem; the drains will become clogged again. But hopefully being on the news and sharing our stories with others will raise enough awareness to cause a lasting change. Because even though the city turns a blind eye to the needs of the smaller neighborhoods, the inhabitants of those neighborhoods work hard to stay positive and stay bright anyway.